Editor’s note: Three volunteers with the Alpine Rescue Team have reached the milestone this year of serving on 1,000 missions. This is the first time since the team’s creation in 1959 that any of its 800 members has reached this landmark. Of the 80 or so current members of the team, the closest will not reach 1,000 missions for another four years. For the average member of Alpine Rescue, it will take 20 years to come close. This story is the final installment of a three-part series profiling these volunteers.

To get his students’ attention, Rabbi Jamie Arnold starts singing a catchy, simple song. Within a few seconds, the 20 or so classmates interrupt their conversations and join in. Then the group pauses for reflection.

Halloween 2016’s final act played out in Idaho Springs on Saturday afternoon, featuring a cast of hundreds, dramatic staging, plenty of prop comedy, full-audience participation, and what was arguably the year’s best performance by a chicken.

Once upon a time, people found a mystical forest near their town. No matter what they threw into the forest — beer cans, televisions, couches, animal carcasses — it all magically disappeared. The forest seemed to swallow everything the townspeople dumped there.

To their chagrin, local residents have found the magical portal where all this trash has spewed out — at various turnouts along Squaw Pass Road. And, on Oct. 26, they gathered to clean up these illegal dumping sites.

Since the beginning of October, Bobby Babeon has tirelessly coordinated seven snowmaking guns around the clock to prepare the slopes of Loveland Ski Area for the 2016-17 season.

Babeon, Loveland’s trail maintenance and snowmaking manager, and his crew are carefully monitoring the temperature and the humidity. If it is 28 degrees and fairly dry, the guns act like giant snowmaking sprinklers.

Teachers at Clear Creek High School/Middle School participated in a yoga class on Friday — clearing their minds and creating a sense of calm — before spending the day catching up on their work while students enjoyed a day off.

Principal Elizabeth Gardner said the class’ purpose was twofold: to help teachers find some internal balance — as they typically spend their days interacting with students and parents — and to provide a fun activity for the staff to do together.

Between the circus performers, face-painting, bouncy houses, snow cones, music and more, Dynamite Days attendees enjoyed the pleasant weather and family-friendly fun in downtown Idaho Springs on Saturday.

The Idaho Springs Chamber of Commerce hosted the fourth annual Dynamite Days, with five musical acts, 26 vendors and an expected attendance of 500 to 700.

Chamber executive director Phyllis Adams said the event earned its explosive moniker because it was started during the widening of the Veterans Memorial Tunnels on I-70.

Editor’s note: Three volunteers with the Alpine Rescue Team have reached the milestone this year of serving on 1,000 missions. This is the first time since the team’s creation in 1959 that any of its 800 members has reached this landmark. Of the 80 or so current members of the team, the closest will not reach 1,000 missions for another four years. For the average member of Alpine Rescue, it will take 20 years to come close. This story is part one of a three-part series profiling these volunteers.